Etymology The species is named in honor of John S. Rankin, Jr. (University of Connecticut, USA), who directed the benthic studies aboard the USCGC 'Glacier', during which the type material of the species was collected. [details]

Habitat Occurs at bathyal depths. Salazar-Vallejo et al. (2007: 476) state that "It might be a pelagic polychaete, but there is no unequivocal evidence for this; however, there are other polychaete genera that are pelagic (like Buskiella McIntosh, 1885), but were originally regarded as benthic forms." [details]